Noorderling29

The Technical director of the Dutch Olympic Committee has, using his discretionary powers, decided to include them in the team. He cites “extra-ordinary circumstances”, but has not stated what they are. The use of these powers is quite rare. They were used in 2022 to nominate an alpine-skier.

pair Danilova/Tsiba hasn't fulfilled the national criteria to participate in the Games but their skating federation has sent a request to the national olympic committee for an exception and to include them to the TeamNL. https://www.schaatsen.nl/nieuws/knsb-dient-verzoek-in-voor-olympisch-startbewijs-danilova-tsiba/

Two pages of bitching about  biathlon and Giacomel will get a win 

In many cultures, Christmas season only officially starts when the Totallympics decorations go up.  

lost to  

Slow for me too.

To give an idea of how competitive it is on the men's side, Norway (yes, NORWAY) doesn't even have the max quota.

Qualification status that could realistically change this week, barring (except where noted) new time qualifying performances :
 
Men
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : pretty much done
 
1500m : pretty much done
 
5000m : one outlier at the moment  Semirunniy. He's currently not qualified for the distance being 18/15 in the rankings and R1 time-wise. He could still punch his ticket : 
 
either by getting into the top 15 with a very good result (a podium or even a win would be needed). If it is at the expanse of  Henriksen or, less likely,  Swings, then the loser is out. If it is at the expanse of any other, then  Sasaki is out.  or by hoping Lorello gets into the top 15 at the expanse of Henriksen or Swings. or by going faster than Sasaki (6'08''834) which seems reachable after his 10k, even in Hamar.  
10000m : once again Henriksen is on the bubble. If  Maly, Petzold of  Farthofer gets into the top 9 at the expanse of Malfatti or Snellink, then he's out. 
 
Mass-start : not much at stake considering most of the reserve skaters will already receive an additional quota - at the moment    . Morino  will try to enter top 32 and be in those additional quota spots. 
 
Team pursuit : pretty much done
 
Women
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : with  Thorup not cleared to participate one more spot is up for grabs.  Scholz would need to be in front of both Herzog (done as she's not entered) and Czerwonka (7 points) after this final week.  Silaeva would be left out. 
 
1500m : Lamarche not competing and  Zofia Braun being promoted to A division, Poland has got a real shot at a second quota. Braun will need to stay in front of Scholz and Weidemann, who could still finish ahead of her depending on how good Braun fares in A division.  Smedding would suffer from a Polish rise.
 
3000m : match-up between  Yang and  Horikawa only separated by 3 points. At the moment Yang is out (R2) but if they exchange position in the standings then Horikawa is out (R1). They could also both finish ahead of Hofmann, at the expanse of  Golubeva ultimately.  Jasch has a small shot at a second German quota too, by edging the former two skaters, eliminating them. 
 
5000m : pretty much done
 
Mass-start :  Santo Rodrigues is hanging on by a thread. The cruelty of it is that those immediately behind her -    - will get an aditional spot anyways, so it does not really matter if they finish in the top 24 ahead of her, except it would allow France to enter a second skater and two girls in the MS.
 
Team pursuit : three-way asymetrical tie for the last SOQP spot between   and , all in division A. Norway needs to beat both as they can't rely on a time Q, Kazakhstan needs to beat Norway to ensure (if they fail to beat China) the first SOQT spot and avoid the Italian wild-card*, whereas China is pretty safe.
*  is currently out but they "only" need to get into a reserve spot to be qualified, which is going faster than 3'00'92 (or faster than Norway if they too decide to skate faster). They were not far off this mark in Hamar earlier this year but the team was in a better shape overall. 

Italian hopes for LA 2028 done and dusted...
 
Local prosecutor in  Trapani requested a 10-year sentence against Antonino Pizzolato (and 3 friends of him) because of a supposed rape against a  tourist, down in Sicily   (and it looks he'll be almost certainly convicted, there's no sign he can be named not guilty by the evidence)
 
https://www.oasport.it/2025/12/nino-pizzolato-chiesti-dieci-anni-di-reclusione-le-motivazioni-della-procura-di-trapani/
 
I know he's quite an idiot, but I never thought he was so disgustingly an asshole 

Now that you mention it, it does feel pretty likely.
 
This means that Italy and Canada would lose their 5th male quota and China would lose their 5th female quota. Poland, Croatia and Hong Kong would get to keep their 1500m quotas.
 
I'll edit the table with these changes.

Not sure if I've seen this before. One of the races has to be recalled because the DJ accidentally started playing music before the race started 

Larmarche 8th in the 500m. Top-3 non-Dutch. 

Yeah, I don't think the B races are produced for tv/streaming... if you can get to Calgary in time, I think tickets are only $10 to see it live though!

 

I am happy for them but waiting the draw to tell who will be the world cup top scorer this time 

I’ve tried to find some background and context, but can’t find any. She’s no longer part of the national ST squad and her comments after her failure to qualify for the Long Track world cups seemed to rule out a return to the short track.
 
Angel Daleman did qualify for the LT world cups, but at the moment seems unlikely to qualify for the LT Olympics, looking at the results this weekend in Salt Lake City. There are currently just too many rivals in the Dutch team that are much faster than she is. I wonder if she’s contemplating a return to the short track, which would boost at the least our relay chances. The decisive qualifying LT tournament is of course still a few weeks away, so her fortunes could change. 

I see that  Suzanne Schulting is entered as a reserve for the World Cup stop next weekend

well, it worked very, very well 
 
more simple advices like that, please! 

Fun fact: due to the cold tomorrow morning, an exception is made and electronically warmed socks are allowed
 
Not bad news for Bruna, who got a pair today after hearing about it. Might help to especially not have her left foot frozen, which still happens basically every time since the accident.

Former Dutch skater Erben Wennemars (Joep's father) has for years already been working for Dutch broadcaster NOS, analyzing the races and such. His advice for Femke Kok to break the WR tomorrow: "Just go faster"  

Winning in speed skating, fluent English (not Dutch it seems), something is off with this guy. 

Anouk Vetter (32), heptatlete, 2016 European Champion, Olympic silver in 2021 and silver at the 2022 and bronze at the 2017 and 2023 Worlds. 

Every time I see any kind of suspension, in all sports / countries, they always have "perfect" timing for the athlete to barely have a hurdle in their schedule / career 

I try to avoid both the sailing and the NOS coverage at the Olympics (and most other events).

Marit Bouwmeester, most succesful female Olympic sailor, with two golds, one silver and one bronze medal.